Cape Cod Thanksgiving

by Amy Belding Brown

Thanks for blue jay's raucous wake-up call,
for wing-flit that recalls the August light,
for low cloud's graceful, melancholy pall,
for beggar wind which hammers through the night.
Thanks for bittersweet's bright ornament,
and rain which presses down the yellow quilt
of leaves upon earth's winter discontent,
and for the rhythm of the marsh's salt and silt.
Thanks for maroon silence of the bog,
for each cranberry's ripe expectancy,
for yielding curtains of the pewter fog
and most, for the fierce spectacle of sea --
its energy so savage and spume-flung --
and all the flashing life beneath its tongue.

November 22, 2001

Copyright © Amy Belding Brown